James Coburn

Endowed with a toothy grin and resonant baritone, actor James Coburn went from supporting character player to breezily hip leading man, before gaining critical recognition and an Academy Award late in...
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Actor Ralph Taeger dies

By:
WENN.com
Mar 22, 2015

Actor Ralph Taeger has died at the age of 78. The 1960s TV star passed away at the Marshall Medical Center in Placerville, California on 11 March (15) following a long illness.
Taeger rose to fame alongside James Coburn in gold rush drama series Klondike in 1960, and went on to work together again the following year (61) in the shortlived adventure series Acapulco.
He also starred in a TV adaptation of John Wayne western Hondo in 1967, but the show was axed after 18 episodes.
His other small screen credits include The Twilight Zone, The Six Million Dollar Man and Father Murphy, while he appeared in films such as A House Is Not a Home, Stage to Thunder Rock and The Delta Factor.

British singer/songwriter Lynsey De Paul left a $2.9 million (£1.8 million) fortune in her will. The veteran pop star died in October (14) after suffering a brain haemorrhage, and editors at Britain's The Sun newspaper now report she left most of her estate to her brother and three nieces.
De Paul, who was a vegetarian and animal rights campaigner, also donated $40,000 (£25,000) to a wildlife rescue charity.
The star, who enjoyed huge chart success in the 1970s, was never married but enjoyed high-profile relationships with Ringo Starr, James Coburn, Sir Sean Connery, Bernie Taupin and Dudley Moore.

British singer/songwriter Lynsey De Paul has died, aged 64. The veteran pop star, who was the first woman to win an Ivor Novello songwriting award, passed away at a hospital in London on Wednesday morning (01Oct14) after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
Her longtime songwriting partner Barry Blue has paid tribute in a message posted on Twitter.com, writing, "I can't really take this tragic news in... We were like brother and sister for over 40 years. I have lost a true friend... RIP Lynsey."
Her niece, Olivia Rubin, says, "She was in perfect health. She was a vegetarian, she didn't smoke, she didn't drink - she was amazing, in fact. (Her death) was completely unexpected."
De Paul rose to fame in the 1970s and scored her first chart hit with 1972's Sugar Me.
Her other hits included Won't Somebody Dance With Me, which earned her an Ivor Novello, making her the first woman to take home the prestigious award. De Paul won a second for her 1974 track No Honestly, the theme tune to the sitcom of the same name.
She represented Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1977, coming in second place with Rock Bottom, and she went on to write hits for acts including Dame Shirley Bassey and The Real Thing. In later years she branched out into TV work, classical music and even acting in a TV show called Kingdom opposite Stephen Fry.
De Paul dated celebrities including Ringo Starr, James Coburn, Sir Sean Connery, Bernie Taupin and Dudley Moore, but she never married.

Actor Denzel Washington is reportedly in talks to re-team with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua on The Magnificent Seven remake. Tom Cruise originally signed on to appear alongside Matt Damon as one of the gang of gunslingers in MGM's version of John Sturges' 1960 film, but dropped out of the project last year (13).
Now movie executives are hoping to reunite Washington and Fuqua for a script rewritten by The Blind Side director John Lee Hancock.
The original movie, penned by True Detective writer Nic Pizzolatto, starred Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz as seven renegades who are recruited to protect a Mexican village from an invasion of bandits.
The Magnificent Seven was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai and was followed by three sequels - Return of the Magnificent Seven, Guns of the Magnificent Seven and The Magnificent Seven Ride Again.

FOX
Plenty of actors have lent their voices to prime time animated series like The Simpsons or movies like The Croods and Toy Story. But it’s hard to imagine Saturday Morning Cartoons with huge stars. A lot of people are shocked to find out that the original voice of Shredder on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star James Avery, or to recall which Star Wars veteran was behind The Joker. Perhaps you weren't aware of the big names behind some of these childhood favorites...
Captain Planet and the Planeteers
A group of teenagers use magic rings to harness the elements and to summon Captain Planet, an environmental superhero. Each episode, they battle villains trying to pollute the environment. Whoopi Goldberg voices Gaia, the spirit of the Earth and their boss. What a lot of children at the time didn’t realize is the show’s villains are all played by major celebrities. Meg Ryan is Dr. Blight, a disfigured doctor who works with a sarcastic British computer. Jeff Goldblum plays Verminous Skumm, a mutated rat creature with a fondness for toxic waste. Sting even appears on the show as the creatively named Zarm. Other villains are played by Hollywood veterans Martin Sheen, James Coburn, Malcolm McDowell, and Ed Asner. Major celebs also stop by for guest appearances including Danny Glover, Louis Gossett Jr., and even Elizabeth Taylor.
Gargoyles
This Disney cartoon creates a mythology where stone gargoyles come to life when the sun sets. It also has a bizarre Star Trek connection. Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis play series villains David Xanatos and Demona. There are also performance by other The Next Generation stars Michael Dorn, Brett Spiner, LeVar Burton, and Colm Meany. The captains of Deep Space Nine, Avery Brooks, and Voyager, Kate Mulgrew, appear on the cartoon. Nichelle Nichols even makes an appearance.
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman is probably the most star-studded cartoon in television history. The series features appearances by stars from the 1970s to today. 1970s icons like Adrienne Barbeau, Michael York, and Marilu Henner pop by the series. Bewitched actress Elizabeth McGovern plays her last role ever on the cartoon. Mark Hamill, a.k.a. Luke Skywalker, finds a career resurgence playing The Joker. Night Court’s Richard Moll, The Beastmaster Marc Singer, and Melissa Gilbert all bring 1980s nostalgia playing major characters. Bruce Wayne’s various love interests include Heather Locklear, comedian Julie Brown, and Supergirl Helen Slater. There are also appearances by future celebrities like Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss and Megan Mullally.
Superman
Similarly, this Man of Steel cartoon has a ton of television actors lending their voices. Superman is voiced by Wings star Tim Daly and Lois Lane is Desperate Housewives star Dana Delany. Sitcom stars Peri Gilpin, Brad Garett, and Joely Fisher all appear on the show.
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Tribeca Film via Everett Collection
For a film that involves a love triangle, mental illness, a Bohemian colony of free-spirits, an impending war and several important historical figures, the most exciting elements of Summer in February are the stunning shots of the English country and Cornish seaside. The rest of the film never quite lives up to the crashing waves and sun-dappled meadows that are used to bookend the scenes, as the entertaining opening never manages to coalesce into a story that lives up the the cinematography, let alone the lives of the people that inspired it.
Set in an Edwardian artist’s colony in Cornwall, Summer in February tells the story of A.J. Munnings (Dominic Cooper), who went on to become one of the most famous painters of his day and head of the Royal Academy of Art, his best friend, estate agent and part-time soldier Gilbert Evans (Dan Stevens), and the woman whom they both loved, aspiring artist Florence Carter-Wood (Emily Browning). Her marriage to Munnings was an extremely unhappy one, and she attempted suicide on their honeymoon, before killing herself in 1914. According to his journals, Gilbert and Florence were madly in love, although her marriage and his service in the army kept them apart.
When the film begins, Munnings is the center of attention in the Lamorna Artist's Colony, dramatically reciting poetry at parties and charming his way out of his bar tab while everyone around him proclaims him to be a genius. When he’s not drinking or painting, he’s riding horses with Gilbert, who has the relatively thankless task of keeping this group of Bohemians in line. Their idyllic existence is disrupted by the arrival of Florence, who has run away from her overbearing father and the fiancé he had picked out for her in order to become a painter.
Stevens and Browning both start the film solidly, with enough chemistry between them to make their infatuation interesting. He manages to give Gilbert enough dependable charm to win over both Florence and the audience, and she presents Florence as someone with enough spunk and self-possession to go after what she wants. Browning’s scenes with Munnings are equally entertaining in the first third of the film, as she can clearly see straight through all of his bravado and he is intrigued by her and how difficult she is to impress. Unfortunately, while the basis of the love triangle is well-established and entertaining, it takes a sudden turn into nothing with a surprise proposal from Munnings.
Neither the film nor Browning ever make it clear why Florence accepts his proposal, especially when they have both taken great pains to establish that she doesn’t care much for him. But once she does, the films stalls, and both Stevens and Browning spend the rest of the film doing little more than staring moodily and longingly at the people around them. The real-life Florence was plagued by depression and mental instability, but neither the film nor Browning’s performance ever manage to do more than give the subtlest hint at that darkness. On a few occasions, Browning does manage to portray a genuine anguish, but rather than producing any sympathy from the audience, it simply conjures up images of a different film, one that focused more on Florence, and the difficulties of being a woman with a mental illness at a time when both were ignored or misunderstood.
Stevens is fine, and Gilbert starts out with the same kind of good-guy appeal the won the heart of Mary Crawley and Downton Abbey fans the world over. However, once the film stalls, so does his performance, and he quickly drops everything that made the character attractive or interesting in favor of longing looks and long stretches of inactivity. He does portray a convincing amount of adoration for Florence, although that's about the only real emotion that Gilbert expresses for the vast majority of the film, and even during his love scene, he never manages to give him any amount of passion.
Cooper does his best with what he’s given, and tries his hardest to imbue the film with some substance and drama. His Munnings is by turns charming, brash, and brooding, the kind of person who has been told all of their life that they are special, and believes it. He even manages to give the character some depth, and even though he and Browning have very little chemistry, he manages to convey a genuine affection for her. It’s a shame that Munnings becomes such a deeply unlikable character, because Cooper is the only thing giving Summer in February a jolt of life – even if it comes via bursts of thinly-explained hostility. It's hard to watch just how hard he's working to connect with his co-stars and add some excitement to a lifeless script and not wish that he had a better film to show off his talents in.
Unfortunately, by the time Florence and Gilbert are finally spurred into activity, the film has dragged on for so long that you’re no longer invested in the characters, their pain, or their love story, even if you want to be. Which is the real disappointment of Summer in February; underneath the stalled plot and the relatively one-note acting, there are glimmers of a fascinating and compelling story that’s never allowed to come to the forefront.
2/5
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Actor Tom Cruise has dropped out of a planned remake of The Magnificent Seven due to scheduling conflicts, according to a report. The Mission: Impossible star signed on in 2012 to appear alongside Matt Damon as one of the gang of gunslingers in MGM's version of John Sturges' 1960 film, but he has since withdrawn from the project.
Cruise's exit isn't the only change in the film's development - The Blind Side director John Lee Hancock has been recruited to rewrite the script for the film, according to TheWrap.com.
The original movie, penned by True Detective writer Nic Pizzolatto, starred Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz as seven renegades who are recruited to protect a Mexican village from an invasion of bandits.
The Magnificent Seven was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai and was followed by three sequels - Return of the Magnificent Seven, Guns of the Magnificent Seven and The Magnificent Seven Ride Again.

One of the joys of the original Anchorman was seeing Will Ferrell wrangle the best comedic talent in the business into one absurdist fable. Not only was the core team one of funniest of ensembles of all time, but the movie was littered with cameos. And they worked — the news anchor rumble is sublime comedy cinema.
Judging from casting reports arriving from the set of the long-awaited sequel Anchorman 2, Ferrell may have been able to work his contacts yet again to fill the follow-up with an all-star cameo cast. Is there some sort of Hollywood Linkedin that makes this all possible?
The latest addition to Anchorman 2 is one of Ferrell's former costars, but not one of the overtly funny ones — adding charm to her inclusion. Who is it?
Possible spoiler of Anchorman 2 coming at you.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nicole Kidman has shot a cameo for Anchorman: The Legend Continues, reuniting with Ferrell, her Bewitched costar, for a secret role. There's also no word if she'll be wearing her fake nose from The Hours for an arbitrary reason.
RELATED: Is 'Anchorman 2' a 'Morning Glory' Sequel?
Along with Kidman, Harrison Ford has also filmed a brief role for the sequel, and anchorman deathwatch combatant Vince Vaughn is rumored to be returning as well. As was the case with Anchorman, there may even be cameos the Internet isn't able to hunt down before the movie hits theaters December 20, 2013 (implausible, but possible). With so much star power being primed for the sequel, Ferrell and his Anchorman director Adam McKay make a gamble. An array of cameos worked for the first movie, which had a cool opening in theaters before catching on as a cult hit. People discovered the movie, and in turn, the random actor appearances that flurry the film. Replicating the recipe for Anchorman 2, and with bigger stars, is tricky. There's an event horizon for the tactic — one too many cameos and suddenly, the movie is limping with a crutch.
The cameo is the trickiest gag to pull off. The goal of a celebrity's inclusion into the fictional world is essentially to pull the viewer out of the movie. A famous face walk-on raises awareness that what you're watching is completely fake and that recognizable people are in on the joke. A well-timed cameo can be hilarious — "Oh my gosh, they got that guy!" They can also be… less effective. While basketball star Patrick Ewing showing up as an Angel in The Exorcist III was likely meant to pull the rug from under us, adding a mind-bending element to the movie, it plays as goofy. The same fumbling can occur in comedy with significantly less laughter.
Ewing's The Exorcist III appearances may have been palatable (emphasis on "may") had it not been for a clutter of other cameos around it, including Samuel L. Jackson, Larry King, and Fabio. It entered gimmick territory. That works for some movies: it was a selling point for 1956's Around the World in Eighty Days (Frank Sinatra! Peter Lorre! Cesar Romero!), and became a point of world building for Robert Altman's showbiz-driven The Player and political comedy Dave. Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich took the "realism" aspect to the next level with: The movie required cameos just to make it believable that John Malkovich felt like a real character. Seeing Brad Pitt vouch for the thespian and Charlie Sheen appear as an old friend added gravity to the drama.
Inversely, cameos don't have to make sense to work. Anchorman is a prime example, along with every Saturday Night Live movie ever made, and another non sequiter classic, Zoolander. But these movies weren't building off the success of a similarly patterned predecessors. The "lighting doesn't strike twice" fear of Anchorman comes from 10 years worth of investment on the parts of fans. Anchorman 2 requires cameos — it's a defining part of the original — but risks having too many, being too random, feeing disingenuous to the frat house feel of the first movie.
If there is any franchise that gives us blind hope for Anchorman 2's delicate use of cameos, it's the Muppet movies. Jim Henson and his crack team of filmmakers worked magic with big name talent, their appearances always complimenting the Muppets rather than stealing the spotlight. Rounding up Steve Martin, Bob Hope, James Coburn, Madeline Kahn, and Orson Welles could be a lame attempt at earning cred, but by lowering their status (the celebs always played second fiddle to the puppet stars), it lampooned what we knew about them. Anchorman 2 has the heightened world to play like the Muppets. If you're going to put Kidman in your movie, push her further than Hollywood has allowed her to go.
Maybe bringing back The Hours nose isn't a bad idea.
So how many cameos is too many cameos? What cameos work and which ones fall flat? Name the best and worst in the comments.
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
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The agent designation: 007. You already know the name. The Bond franchise has been in existence for half a century, with Skyfall marking its twenty-third official entry. Not even the likes of Jason Voorhees or Freddy Krueger can boast sequels of that quantity. Why do we love James Bond so much? Is it his jet setting, womanizing lifestyle? Is it his ability to thwart even the most elaborate and well-crafted world domination schemes from a colorful rouges gallery of madmen? Whatever the case, with the next two films already in development, Bond shows no signs of slowing down.
The James Bond series has cast an overwhelming shadow over the landscape of film, particularly that of spy cinema. More particular still, American spy films have struggled to capture the same degree of phenomenal success as has been enjoyed by the Bond movies since the 1960s. While it is true that the various 007 films do not comprise the entirety of British spy cinema, it is without question the titan of the genre and therefore the paradigm by which the American counterparts must be judged. So how has America tried, and failed, to acquire this elusive cinematic target?
Comedic License
One of the earliest attempts for American films to capitalize on the James Bond trend, and indeed one of the first to yield any sort of franchise, were Bond parodies. In the late sixties, two separate American film series sprang up poking fun at England’s deadliest agent. The first starred James Coburn as Derek Flint, an agent of ZOWIE fighting the forces of evil in Our Man Flint and In Like Flint. At almost the same time, crooner Dean Martin starred as Matt Helm, a photographer/spy in a total of four film adventures including 1966’s The Silencers and Murder’s Row. Both of these series were takeoffs on the swinging, mod lifestyle that Bond was so often afforded by his occupation.
America has been monumentally prolific in the area of spy spoofs; rivaling and even possibly exceeding our output of more straight-laced fare. Movies like Hop Scotch and the movies based on the Get Smart television series eventually gave way to Spies Like Us, Top Secret, and the notably dreadful Leonard Part 6. The most interesting aspect of this is that the Austin Powers franchise, which netted three installments, riffs as much on the parodies of Bond as on Bond himself. It would seem we have long been of the mindset of “if you can’t beat ‘em, mock ‘em.”
Counter-Intelligence
James Bond is a loyal agent of Her Majesty’s government. This should be all rights limit his appeal to American audiences. But the writers, including Ian Fleming in the novels, were smart enough to design stories that placed the whole of the world in peril and not just England. However, Bond’s reverence toward his own country is one primary difference between Bond films and American spy movies. Where James is a willing instrument of his government, a vast majority of the spy films on this side of the pond illustrate a profound mistrust of our own government.
With Bond films, we are privy to the inner workings of MI-6, or at least the fictional version of MI-6 they had constructed. Our debonair lead, and therefore the audience, is hardly ever in the dark about even the most top-secret parameters of his missions. In the states, the heroes are often used and betrayed by shadowy factions of U.S. intelligence. This frightening cloak and dagger betrayal can be seen in the likes of Sidney Pollack’s Three Days of the Condor and more recent films like Spy Game, The Recruit, and even the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds 2012 film Safe House.
While we could dissect the myriad historical headlines that may have influenced this movement in American spy films, the fact is that these movies don’t lend themselves well to sequels. Once the curtain is pulled back and either the villains are laid to waste or their ultimate scheme has gotten the better of our hero, there are few other places the story can go. Either result would not logically allow for that character to return to spy work so the overarching continuity would be completely absent. These films, by their very nature, can’t really latch on in the same way as did Bond.
The Impossible Task and The Bourne Exemplar
The two films that have managed their way around this problem are the two that have been the most successful, and in fact some of the only, non-comedy American spy franchises. In 1998, Brian De Palma adapted the television series Mission: Impossible into a film. Again, here we had a villain that was revealed to be an inside man, a former ally. However, the team dynamic added a new dimension to the proceedings and the action set pieces provided a nice counterbalance to the complex intrigue. That team dynamic would be somewhat lost in the next Mission: Impossible movie, but from then on it became more and more a staple of the series.
That team dynamic was divergent from the solitary hero that is Bond, however there were elements that made their way into the movie from the original TV series that play directly to Bond fans. The idea of the characters requiring their own theme song harkened back to Monty Norman’s fabulous signature Bond music. Again, this was not an invention of the movie, but a reflection of the days when America also used TV as a conduit for capitalizing on the Bond-inspired spy craze. The high-tech, and highly specialized gadgets used by the IMF team are also very reminiscent of the devices 007 uses to escape dire situation after dire situation.
A few years later, Universal produced a big screen version of the Jason Bourne character created by Robert Ludlum. Matt Damon’s amnesic CIA agent trying to reclaim his identity was enough of a twist on the concept of the treacherous government agency to enthrall audiences. The singular hero who was well skilled in the art of kicking ass found comfortable purchase in the hearts of those who idolized Bond. Plus, the Bourne series, like Bond, was drawing from a rich literary tradition. Also, like Mission: Impossible and the best of the 007 series, the Bourne movies often struck that perfect balance between captivating plot points and spectacular action sequences.
That last component may seem part and parcel with contemporary espionage actioners, but one of the most painful attempts to sell an “American Bond” to audiences was XXX starring Vin Diesel. Among its innumerable flaws, XXX was so singularly concerned with action sequences that the story was an appalling mess. This necessary balanced approach may also explain why The Bourne Legacy caused so much of a problem. It wasn’t the changing of the guard in the lead role from Damon to Renner, not playing the same character but certainly passing the torch, that caused the critical whiplash. We had become accustomed to that sort of changeover thanks to the Bond series and its seven different lead actors. But the story was so weak and the action scenes so poorly shot that it couldn’t possibly maintain the series’ energy.
Will we ever concoct the right formula to foster a spy series anywhere near as formidable as Bond? It’s hard to say. We’ve tried countless times to no avail, but the future of both the Bourne and Mission: Impossible franchises remains to be seen.
[Photo Credit: Sony Pictures/Paramount Pictures]
More:
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Javier Bardem on His Quirky 'Skyfall' Villain: 'That's Me — Because I'm Insane Sometimes'
Idris Elba As James Bond: The Right Move for the 007 Franchise

The James and Paula Coburn Foundation has funded the green area at the Motion Picture &amp; Television Fund campus in Woodland Hills, California to mark the couple's dedication to health, spirituality and gardening.
Designed by Kenneth Cobonpue, the garden features a gong, a spherical continuous motion fountain, and a custom Yin-Yang pergola.
Lynda Erkiletian, the executive director of the foundation, tells WENN, "The JPCF is delighted to provide a lasting and memorable landmark with the Wellness Garden. The MPTF is an organisation that the Coburns were very passionate about given their interests in health and giving back to the entertainment community that played such a big part in their lives.
"The garden not only provides a beautiful meditation area for MPTF's community, but also celebrates the passions and interests, the lives and legacies of the Coburns."

Summary

Endowed with a toothy grin and resonant baritone, actor James Coburn went from supporting character player to breezily hip leading man, before gaining critical recognition and an Academy Award late in a career that spanned 50 years. After several years of minor roles - often as a thug - on television series and in feature films, Coburn's big break arrived when he joined "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) alongside fellow cowboy mercenaries Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen. Even more successful was his third consecutive pairing with McQueen in the WWII adventure "The Great Escape" (1963). He achieved full-fledged movie stardom in the comedy spy spoof "Our Man Flint" (1966), presaging the campy exploits of Austin Powers by 30 years. Although he disliked the role, Coburn relented to the sequel "In Like Flint" (1967), before moving on to more creatively satisfying work and briefly forming his own production company. In what he personally regarded as some of his best work, Coburn collaborated with the volatile director Sam Peckinpah on the films "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973) and "Cross of Iron" (1977). Although both movies would eventually find ardent admirers, sadly neither performed well upon initial release. Twenty years later, just as the sun seemed to be setting on his storied career, Coburn delivered an Oscar-winning performance opposite Nick Nolte in director Paul Schrader's "Affliction" (1998). In a fitting comment on his work and ability, Schrader recalled bracing Coburn for the rigors he was about to face in the role of an abusive alcoholic. After listening to the Schrader's words of encouragement, Coburn replied, "Oh, you mean you want me to really act? I can do that. I haven't often been asked to, but I can."<p>Born James Harrison Coburn III on Aug. 31, 1928 in Laurel, NE, he was the son of Mylet and James Harrison Coburn, Jr., an auto mechanic whose family had lost their substantial holdings during the Great Depression. After heading out West with his family at the age of five, Coburn grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, where he attended public schools and briefly enrolled at the local junior college prior to enlisting in the Army in 1950. It was while stationed as a soldier in Mainz, Germany that he became interested in film after providing narration for several Army training films. Upon his return to the States, Coburn enrolled in drama classes at Los Angeles City College, where he took part in various school productions and eventually appeared onstage at the La Jolla Playhouse in a production of "Billy Budd" opposite Vincent Price. In 1954, he made the move to New York City, where he studied with Stella Adler and began picking up work in commercials and various televised live plays that included early turns on "Studio One" (CBS, 1948-1958) and "General Electric Theater" (CBS, 1953-1962). Coburn was back in L.A. by the late 1950s, working on series such as "Wagon Train" (NBC, 1957-1965) and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (CBS, 1955-1965). Although working steadily by the end of the decade, Hollywood seemed content to relegate him to supporting roles as a bad guy in such films as director Budd Boetticher's Western "Ride Lonesome" (1959). Things began to change, however, when director John Sturges cast Coburn in a remake of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's landmark "Seven Samurai" (1954).<p>After learning about the project from actor Robert Vaughn - a friend and fellow classmate at City College - Coburn wrangled the role of Britt, a knife-wielding mercenary in the action-packed Western, "The Magnificent Seven" (1960). Although given only a handful of lines in the movie, it established the rough-hewn actor as a heroic figure alongside Hollywood tough guys like Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and Yul Brynner. Despite the film's blockbuster success, it would not equate to overnight stardom for Coburn, then still considered a supporting actor. He made early attempts at getting an ongoing television series off the ground, first by playing a con man during the Alaskan gold rush in the short-lived "Klondike" (NBC, 1960-61), co-starring Ralph Taeger. When that failed, the network moved both Coburn and Taeger to sunnier locales where they played a pair of adventuresome beachcombers in the even less successful "Acapulco" (NBC, 1961). He had better luck back on the big screen, where he reteamed with Steve McQueen as a member of a small squad outnumbered by German forces in the gritty WWII action drama "Hell is for Heroes" (1962), directed by Don Siegel. As much of a step in the right direction as this was for Coburn, it would be in his next collaboration with McQueen that he would find himself co-starring in a true Hollywood spectacular with some of cinema's brightest stars.<p>Pleased with Coburn's work in "The Magnificent Seven," director John Sturges cast him in the role of Louis "The Manufacturer" Sedgwick in the WWII blockbuster "The Great Escape" (1963), the fact-based story of a massive escape attempt by Allied POWs from a high-security German prison camp. Featuring an all-star cast that included McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough, the film, while only drawing modest praise from critics, went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of the year and helped strengthen Coburn's stature as a marquee actor. Villainous roles - something Coburn never shied away from - continued to come his way in projects like the Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn romantic thriller "Charade" (1964), in which he played one of three unscrupulous characters willing to do anything to get his hands on the money he thinks Hepburn's dead ex-husband stole. Other supporting roles included a turn alongside Charlton Heston in the Civil War Western "Major Dundee" (1965), directed by the mercurial Sam Peckinpah, whose clashes with both Heston and the studio during the film's production became legendary. For his part, however, Coburn grew quite fond of Peckinpah, and later stated that he felt much of his best work came from his collaborations with the trouble filmmaker.<p>The following year, Coburn was finally given the chance to carry a film as its leading man in the spy spoof "Our Man Flint" (1966). As the suave and sexy super agent Derek Flint, the actor adroitly skewered the James Bond craze of the day and explicitly influenced comedian Mike Myers' "Austin Powers" films three decades later. Thus, Coburn entered a phase in which he headlined quirky comedies such as the Blake Edwards WWII satire "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?" (1966) and the inevitable sequel, "In Like Flint" (1967). In a move that spoke volumes about Coburn's character, he turned down a third outing as Flint - a film series that, despite its financial success, he disliked greatly - in order to pursue more challenging projects. One of those was the conspiracy theory comedy "The President's Analyst" (1967), which he produced under his own banner, Panpiper Productions. Under-appreciated through the years, the film was an incisive satire in which Coburn, as the Commander in Chief's shrink, discovers that the shadowy entity pulling the strings in a global power structure is none other than the phone company. He next attempted to take a page from McQueen's book of cool with a turn as a charming criminal in the lighthearted caper "Duffy" (1968).<p>After a string of less notable films over the turn of the decade, Coburn teamed with the king of the "spaghetti Western," Italian director Sergio Leone and co-star Rod Steiger for the explosively fun "Duck, You Sucker" (1972) - better known in the U.S. as "A Fistful of Dynamite." He continued with the Western genre in the less bombastic, although equally volatile "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973), which paired him once again with Peckinpah. Coburn played Garrett, the past-his-prime gunslinger sent to bring down his former friend, notorious outlaw Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson). From the start, the film's production was troubled due in equal parts to the director's debilitating alcoholism and his adversarial relationship with executives at MGM. Suffering from studio-imposed time and budgetary constraints, the hastily edited version released in theaters was disastrously received, severely damaging Peckinpah's already tarnished reputation. That same year saw Coburn leading an all-star cast that included Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon, James Mason, and Richard Benjamin in the glossy, albeit empty, who-done-it, "The Last of Sheila" (1973), co-written by actor Anthony Perkins and stage lyricist Stephen Sondheim.<p>Coburn was dealt a personal blow that summer when his close friend and martial arts trainer, kung fu legend Bruce Lee, died suddenly just weeks before his breakthrough film "Enter the Dragon" (1973) was to be released. For years, he and Lee had worked on a film project based on a story they had co-written, along with screenwriting veteran Sterling Silliphant, entitled "The Silent Flute." Years earlier a training injury of Lee's and scheduling conflicts of Coburn's had derailed the effort, however, with Lee's death, the film that had been tailored with roles for both actors would seemingly never see production. On a lighter note, Coburn joined other notable faces, including horror film legend Christopher Lee, on the iconic album cover of Paul McCartney & Wings' platinum-selling 1973 album, <i>Band on the Run</i>. Returning to the big screen, he once again embraced the role of villain in a paean to the Western "The Last Hard Men" (1976), co-starring Charlton Heston. Despite the disappointments of their last collaboration, he re-teamed with Peckinpah once more for the unconventional WWII drama "Cross of Iron" (1977). In the film, Coburn portrayed a Nazi soldier under the command of a self-serving officer (Maximilian Schell), who finds himself torn between duty and his conscience. Although the movie garnered critical acclaim in addition to box office success in Europe, it was poorly received by U.S. audiences, much to the disappointment of Coburn and his embattled director.<p>Coburn next made his first television appearance in years as the star of the miniseries "The Dain Curse" (CBS, 1978), a mystery based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett. Overcoming the inherent difficulties of the novel's exceptionally byzantine plot, the TV movie went on to win an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, in addition to several Emmy nominations. The release of the action-fantasy "Circle of Iron" (1979) was surely a bittersweet moment for Coburn. Based on the long-dormant story for "The Silent Flute," the substandard effort starred an inadequate David Carradine in the role originally intended for Bruce Lee. Ironically, it would earn Coburn his one and only film writing credit. Coburn's professional output tapered off over the next decade, due in large part to the debilitating effects of a 10-year battle with severe rheumatoid arthritis, which he eventually found a modicum of relief from years later with the help of homeopathic therapies. The brief appearances he did make during that period included a cameo as a South American drug lord robbed by James Brolin and his cash-strapped friends in the action-adventure "High Risk" (1981). He was also seen more frequently on television, where he hosted the supernatural anthology series "Darkroom" (ABC, 1981-82), and essayed a ruthless businessman in the drama "Sins of the Father" (NBC, 1985).<p>By the start of the next decade, Coburn increased his visibility with a lengthy string of supporting character roles. He revisited familiar territory as a cattle baron intent on bringing down Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez) in the Brat Pack Western sequel "Young Guns II" (1990), followed by a turn as a sinister CIA agent in the Bruce Willis box-office disaster "Hudson Hawk" (1991). Coburn also lent his considerable comedic talents to the unworthy sequel "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit" (1993), and the needless remake "The Nutty Professor" (1996), starring Eddie Murphy in the role originally perfected by Jerry Lewis. However, two years later and more than four decades into his career, Coburn would stun audiences and critics with his devastating portrayal of an abusive alcoholic in the Paul Schrader psychological drama "Affliction" (1998). As Glen "Pop" Whitehouse, the unrelentingly cruel father of small town sheriff Nick Nolte, the actor delivered what many considered his finest performance, in a dark character study of buried secrets, long-festering wounds, and self-discovery. For his exceptional work in the difficult film, Coburn won his only Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.<p>With renewed vigor, Coburn worked practically non-stop in the years that followed. The veteran actor employed his unmistakable baritone to menacing effect in the Disney/Pixar animated feature "Monsters, Inc." (2001), as the voice of villainous CEO Henry J. Waternoose III. Coburn took on pivotal roles in projects such as "The Man from Elysian Fields" (2002), in which he played a venerated novelist whose wife (Olivia Williams) engages in an affair with a much younger, aspiring writer (Andy Garcia). Despite his recent stature as an Oscar-winning thespian, Coburn seemed happy to take part in less-than-stellar productions, as evidenced by a turn in the sled dog comedy "Snow Dogs" (2002), starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. Proving he still had the gravitas to carry a film, the 74-year-old Coburn starred as a WWII veteran tracing the ownership of the gun used in the killing of his daughter (Virginia Madsen) in director Alan Jacobs' drama "American Gun" (2004). The film would be his last. On Nov. 18, 2002, Coburn died of a heart attack while listening to music and playing his flute at his home in Beverly Hills.

Name

Role

Comments

James Coburn

Father

garage business wiped out by the Depression

Lisa Coburn

Daughter

born 1957

James IV

Son

born on May 22, 1961

Beverly Kelly

Wife

married on November 11, 1959; divorced 1979

Paula Murad

Wife

born c. 1955; together since 1989; married October 22, 1993; died July 30, 2004 of cancer

Lynsey Paul

Lover

born 1950; together c. 1979; Coburn co-wrote two songs on her 1979 album "Tigers and Fireflies"

Education

Name

Los Angeles City College

University of Southern California

Notes

In 1979, Coburn started suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis which has at times left him debilitated. In 1998, a holistic healer started him on a dietary supplement , which has resulted in a drastic improvement in his condition. He told The Associated Press in a 1999 interview that he had "healed himself" by taking sulfur-based pills. Although his knuckles remained gnarled, the pills cured him of the excruciating pain.